Rosmarinus officinalis, rosemary

Summary

Though harmful only in certain very particular circumstances,
which have not been known to arise in modern times, rosemary has an
important substance abuse message as well as the most contentious
story of all.

Family

Meaning of the Name

Rosmarinus
Latin ‘ros’, ‘dew’ or ‘water-spray’ and ‘marinus’, ‘sea’. The plant
was found on sea cliffs in southern Europe.

officinalis
From the Latin for workshop or office and, thus, given to the
species of a plant which was sold in shops or pharmacies and, by
extension, a useful plant.

Common Names and Synonyms

rosemary

How Poisonous, How Harmful?

The essential oil, used in aromatherapy, can produce miscarriage.

Incidents

Because aromatherapists are warned of the potential, there are no
reported cases of miscarriage.

There are a number of reports of dermatitis arising from
handling the plant.

Folklore and Facts

It would be impossible to eat enough rosemary to be harmed but,
clearly, misuse of the essential oil could be devastating to a young
woman in the early stages of pregnancy. What decides whether
rosemary is harmful or not is how we, the human race, choose to use
it. In this way, the rosemary has an important message in
substance abuse education.

Rosmarinus officinalis,
rosemary

Rosemary flowers were once white but, while fleeing Herod’s
troops, the Virgin Mary draped her cloak over a bush and the blooms
took on the blue colour from her garment. This is used to explain
the plant's lifespan of no more than 33 years, Christ's time on
earth.

Sprigs placed under the pillow were used to ward off daemons and prevent bad
dreams. It was woven into brides' bouquets and thrown into graves as
a sign that the dead person would not be forgotten.

As well as producing a pleasant
smell burning rosemary was used as a disinfectant.

The phrase 'Rosemary that's for remembrance' is about the
second best known quote from 'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'. This
association remains to this day and a sprig of rosemary is used in
Australia to remember those killed in war in the way that the poppy
is displayed in Britain.

A
study conducted by the University of Northumbria looked into the
effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function. 144 participants
were exposed to the aroma of lavender or rosemary or no aroma and
asked to carry out a series of tests widely used for assessing the
cognitive performance of Alzheimer’s patients. The study found that
lavender caused reduced performance of working memory, and ‘impaired
reaction times for both memory and attention based tasks’ whereas
rosemary produced ‘a significant enhancement of performance for
overall quality of memory and secondary memory factors, but also
produced an impairment of speed of memory’.

Aromatherapy is one of the wide range of so-called
'alternative' therapies. Though most, such as homeopathy, reiki
and reflexology, have nothing more than a placebo effect, it is
possible that there is a physical aspect to aromatherapy. This
is based on the negative; that is, everyone accepts that
unpleasant smells can produce nausea so it could be that other
smells can produce pleasant effects.

It's most telling piece of folklore, however, is simply that rosemary in the garden denotes a house where the woman rules.